vyprVPN Review

VyprVPN Review

This is the most comprehensive VyprVPN review available online. In this review is everything you need to know about VyprVPN from speed and performance, to pricing, to customer support and device compatibility. Also included is a detailed setup guide to help you get VyprVPN setup in under 2 minutes on your device.

Company Summary

A veteran in the VPN service provider space, VyprVPN have been around for over a decade. Starting as part of the Golden Frog internet freedom group, they pride themselves on delivering a service of high speeds and top security, however the latter of these has some issues that are highlighted below. Brilliant customer support are a real plus with this VPN provider.

Pros

Free version available that provides features comparative to paid competitor versions

Complimentary cloud storage

Very competitive pricing

Interface and apps are well designed and very user-friendly

Cons

Does not accept Bitcoin

Encryption not completely top-level (some DNS leak issues mentioned)

Data leakage concerns

The Verdict

We really like the look, feel, pricing and server speed that VyprVPN provide. With that said though, we do feel that the security issues they are trying to remedy are quite important and should be heavily considered before committing to using them. Certainly no harm in testing them out for yourself with the free version or free trial account.

Full VyprVPN Review

Pricing, Plans, & Payment Options

PRICING

VyprVPN is a top performing VPN service provider, so it is no surprise that their pricing is competitively top-end. They offer prices that put them in the "more expensive" category of VPN providers, yet for good reason, as they have a stellar reputation of providing a level of service that justifies their higher pricing.

PLANS

As with practically every VPN service provider that's as popular and highly revered as them, VyprVPN offer three pricing plans to customers -- however, what VyprVPN do very differently is that they also offer a "FREE" option to customers:

The three paid options are structured in a way you would expect, with the longer commitment a customer makes giving a lower monthly price.

It is the free plan that really intrigued me, since this is highly uncommon for a VPN provider to offer. As you can see in the above screenshot - this free option is not just a "fluff" offer that does not provide any real value. On the contrary, VyprVPN's free plan provides users with value that's comparable to what some VPN service providers only offer on their paid pricing plans.

VyprVPN manage to sustain offering the free plan to customers by the amount of customers that pay for the service via one of the three paid options. This speaks volumes of the level of quality and value that their paid options clearly give users.

PAYMENT OPTIONS

Customers can pay by any major credit card provider or via PayPal to use VyprVPN:

Money back Guarantee

This is one of the shortest money back guarantee periods I have encountered among the multiple VPN service reviews I've conducted. Considering that the money back guarantee speaks volumes as to how confident a VPN service provider is with their product and customer retention - this is not too encouraging.

However, with that said it is great that they offer at least some option of money back to new users. In addition, the free VPN plan they offer really compensates very well for this money back guarantee, since new customers can simply try out the free plan for as long as they like, and treat this as a "free trial" period which can last as long as they like, before they decide if they would pay for any of the paid pricing plan subscriptions.

Feautures

VyprVPN offer some of the most unique and impressive features of ay VPN service provider currently out there. Let's go through these now:

No 3rd party servers- All servers that VyprVPN offer are owned and managed entirely by Vypr. Very few of their competitors can offer such a high-level of server service.

Worldwide servers- The library of servers VyprVPN can offer are truly worldwide, with currently over 50+ servers to choose from.

Chameleon- Chameleon is a technology created by Vypr, for Vypr. It utilises the original, unmodified OpenVPN 256-bit protocol and has the metadata scrambled. This completely stops DPI, VPN blocking and throttling by your ISP.

Zero-logging- VyprDNS is offered exclusively to all VyprVPN users. This personal DNS ensures that zero logs are taken of user activity. Huge privacy-protecting feature.

NAT Firewall- This integrates with your VyprVPN seamlessly and offers an extra layer of security to your VPN connection by blocking any and all unwanted inbound traffic.

Live chat- VyprVPN proudly boast 24/7, 365 days-a-year customer support not only via email but also impressively via live chat.

50GB of online storage free- Every user of the paid VyprVPN service get 50GB of online storage, completely free, as standard.

The Software

The software is one of the most aesthetically impressive and pleasing I have encountered across many VPNs. From the website, through payment, installing and launching the VPN - it was all very simple, quick and intuitive.

Once you have selected your plan and made payment, you need to activate your account. This is the standard requirement of any VPN service provider and VyprVPN definitely make it a painless process:

Step 1. Check your email for the activation link.

Step 2. Click the activation link.

Step 3. Select your download link from the confirmation page.

Since I use a Macbook, I choose the according download link, which launches the download automatically. This took seconds to download, so already I was impressed by how 'light' the software is.

Once the download is complete, you simply install the VyprVPN software and then launch it from your device. You are then promptly presented with a login window:

As you can see, the main interface is incredibly clear and clean. The user is only presented with the most important and necessary information and data.

Logging in is a breeze, since when you sign up initially on the website, you create your own password. Some VPN service providers auto-generate a password for you, which makes signing up a few seconds faster - but then when you are inevitably asked to login to the VPN, you have to go back to your email account and find the email that contains the auto-generated password to copy>paste. So I appreciate this from VyprVPN.

Once logged in, you are automatically connected to the fastest server. For me. that was Argentina:

Although unexpected, I liked this auto-connecting feature. This is the first time I've seen this in a VPN and it makes sense, since many times I have no preference for the specific location of my VPN server, instead just wanting to be connected to a fast server in order to have my online activity be anonymous on my device.

All the main data you need to have in front of you is presented on this main interface. You can also clearly see that the

For the occasions when you need to select a particular server location (e.g. a server baed in the United States, to unlock the full US Netflix on your device), then you simply click the geo-pin icon beside the 'Connect' button, which opens a new window that lists all available servers:

As you can see, this list can be reordered by Region and previously-selected favourites. You can also search if you need to find a location fast. Nice little touch to have these reordering/filtering options available to the user.

MOBILE SOFTWARE

To test out VyprVPN on a mobile device, I downloaded it to my Android smartphone. You can do this by either selecting the according download button on the VyprVPN site, or by simply going to Google Play and downloading it directly there.

Once downloaded and installed on your Android device, you can open the app and are then presented with the login screen, which looks like this:

Very pleased to see that the design and layout quality is exactly the same as the website and laptop software interface. Nice and clean.

Once logged in, you are presented with the main home screen, which gives you the most vital data just like the laptop interface home screen:

You can also swipe between more data, such as the main country you are connecting from, and a log of all your connections for that session.

Connecting to a specific server location is simple. Just as with the main interface mentioned earlier, you click the geo-pin icon and are presented with the following window showing all server location options:

For this demo, I just chose a UK based server. You simply click on the server you want and the app begins connecting immediately, like so:

There's a whole host of settings and feature options you can browse from within the app too, by simple clicking the cog in the top right of the interface:

So there you have it - a quick overview of the VyprVPN interface and functionality across both an OS X laptop device and Android mobile device. All in all, a very well designed and developed VPN that is highly user-friendly and gives all the functionality you would hope for, with more extras and upgrades mere clicks away.

Compatibility

VyprVPN is not only compatible with all devices and operating systems a user would expect (Windows, Android, OS X and iOS), but they also have tailored apps specifically for these and even for setup on routers.

This high level of compatibility makes VyprVPN incredibly easy to integrate and setup on all manner of devices for the user.

Speed & Performance

A quick speed test was performed from my Macbook in order to gauge the functionality of the VPN software with regards to checking if the IP address did in fact change accordingly and if the upload/download speeds of the connection were significantly different or not. I ran the speed test first without the VPN connected, and then with it connected.

As you can see from the results below, the download speed did drop quick significantly when I turned the VPN on (although still a very fast download speed, objectively) but the upload speed remained at the same level. Overall, a very solid performance of speed from this VPN:

Without VPN:

With VPN:

Support

Boasting a round the clock support of 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year -- VyprVPN offer users email support, a forum for discussing troubleshooting ideas, and most impressively a live chat support right on the site:

The Website

The websites is one of the most professionally and smartly designed sites I have interacted with compared to the many VPN service provider websites I have reviewed.

It has a clean and modern design, that clearly presents visitors with the most important information they want to see as soon as they arrive on the site:

The navigation bar that sits atop the entire website also offers quick links to more information on the main information points that a visitor wants.

There is continuity with the actual software design and functionality against the website's, which really shows the professionalism and attention to detail that this VPN service provider put into their company and thus services. The site loads fast and is intuitive to navigate.

Security & Privacy

Vypr proudly boast having the capacity and weight behind their company structure to physically own all the hardware necessary to build, run and comfortably operate their VPN software. As a result, they confidently pride themselves on providing one of the most secure VPN services on earth - however, this claim is a little less than true in reality.

The reason for this "super secure VPN" being a bit of stretch is because, although the company is officially registered and incorporated in Switzerland, the physical location of the Vypr is in the United States. This means that they are liable to laws under US jurisdiction, which is notoriously aggressive toward online monitoring/surveillance, and file sharing.

In addition to this big downside, VyprVPN users are right in the firing line of how harsh the US is in dealing with DCMA requests -- with users having just a two strike rule if found to be sharing copyright infringing data via VyprVPN. One more negative with Vypr's so-called high-level security is that their "zero-log" policy that comes with the VyprDNS is only available to Pro and Platinum users, with users on the Basic account having their activity logged for 30 days.

All in all there are some issue with the security that VyprVPN really fall short on when compared against heir biggest competitors in the VPN service providing space.

Conclusion

To conclude my overall evaluation of VyprVPN, I would section my closing thoughts into three areas:

- Usability- Security- Speed

USABILITY

The usability of VyprVPN is brilliant. Really hard to beat the design and functionality of the website, the software and the app I interacted with. The look and feel of VyprVPN on a whole definitely places it in the top 5 VPNs I have reviewed.

SECURITY

This is where VyprVPN falls short. It has some pretty serious issues that I hope they address in the very near future, since they have a beautiful service that functions fantastically - so it would be great if they were to deliver a level of true user data security and privacy that equals that of their immediate competitor VPN service providers.

SPEED

Great. Speed was certainly not an issue with this VPN. The fact that they own and operate all physical equipment that runs the VPN service in-house, personally, really does make a difference in the awesome speeds you get from the service. One of the fastest VPNs I have ever used.

So all in all I would say that VyprVPN certainly delivers a service that is a joy to interact with, however they are lacking in some fundamental areas that are really the main reason people turn to using VPNs in the first place (high-level security and privacy of their data). I would recommend trying them out if mid-level privacy and security is something you are willing to sacrifice for the speed of service that they provide. Otherwise, there are definitely more secure VPN service providers out there.

One answer

yea, I second that!Used it on a Eurotrip last year July when I was tlanelrivg across 6 countries with varying degrees of access to internet (WiFi and 3G). In short its a perfect replacement for a laptop as a travel companion (device)!Reading newspaper, replying emails, checking train and flight times, confirming bookings etc etc, just does it. I give it 5 stars.